Doctor Strange star inspired Cumberbatch-mania in Kathmandu

When Marvel’s new superhero movie Doctor Strange started shooting in Kathmandu at the start of November, its producers assumed they could film exterior sequences featuring the movie’s star without attracting too much attention from the local population. After all, how famous could Benedict Cumberbatch be in Nepal?

The answer turned out to be “very” — actually, make that “very.”

“We were in Kathmandu, we were shooting in some of the public areas, and the crowds that turned out for Benedict weren’t like anything I’ve ever seen in 30 years in the business,” says Doctor Strange executive producer Charles Newirth. “It was like the Beatles showed up after The Ed Sullivan Show. He did one thing one day where he just popped his head out of a window just to say ‘Hi’ to the fans and it just erupted into just love and adoration. There were girls that were crying and hugging each other when they saw him go by. It was really remarkable.”